NSCSW Connections: Cultivating Our Wellness

To connect with other SW and explore the complex subject of self-care and prevention of burnout, secondary stress & vicarious trauma.

What does it mean to cultivate wellness? How might we practice as social workers if we viewed our wellness as a garden, requiring nurturing, care, and resources?

Social workers face complex and challenging situations in their practices, and it can often be challenging to prevent vicarious trauma, secondary stress, and burnout. These virtual lunch hour conversations invite social workers to share best practices and strategies for cultivating our wellness. These quarterly sessions allow social workers to connect with each other and reconnect to your shared purpose!

Attendees will be encouraged to learn from one another and connect with each other in new and transformative ways in support of cultivating our wellness.

Objectives

• Knowledge: Identify and understand strategies and approaches to cultivating wellness, self-care, and collective care from other social workers.
• Skills: Develop and implement self-reflective processes that support self-care and the prevention of vicarious trauma and secondary stress.
• Values: Examine and shift beliefs, worldviews, and ideologies contributing to our wellness.
• Relational: Connect with others and build relationships that support professional Social Work identity and practice.

Foundations

There are several sections of the NSCSW Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice that relate to this series:

Value 4: Valuing human relationships

• Guiding Principle 4.2: Social workers continually develop self-awareness and practise self-reflection to guide their practice and personal well-being.

Value 7: Providing competent professional services

• Guiding Principle 7.1: Social workers are committed to the ongoing development of their professional abilities and knowledge, aiming to ensure the delivery of culturally responsive professional services.

• Guiding Principle 7.2: Social workers practise within their level of competence and seek appropriate guidance when services required are beyond their competence.

• Guiding Principle 7.3: Social workers contribute to the ongoing development of the social work profession and current and future social workers.

Facilitator

Tyler Colbourne, Professional Development Consultant, BSW, MSW, RSW

Tyler had 20 years of experience working in non-profit and community impact organizations as a leader championing socially just policies and practices. He approaches learning with an approach grounded in systems theory, decolonization, whimsy, social justice, and the importance relational accountability.

Eligibility

This event is only for members of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers (NSCSW). All active, associate, retired associate, and student members are welcome to attend; our professional development programming is part of our member services funded by annual registration fees. There are no other prerequisites for this session.

NOTE: Registration for this session will close 24 hours prior to the session.

Professional development tracking

For members of NSCSW, participating in this one-hour session is eligible to help members of NSCSW complete part of their annual regulatory requirement for professional development activities or training to increase resilience to vicarious trauma and secondary stress. Members who have already completed that requirement for this year can choose to track it as an informal learning activity instead.

Visit nscsw.org/pd for more information about the current professional development requirements for Nova Scotia social workers.

Questions?

If you have questions about our advocacy events or professional development program, please contact the College's Professional Development Consultant, Tyler Colbourne at tyler.colbourne@nscsw.org.

If you RSVP'd and are having trouble accessing the online event, please contact nscsw@nscsw.org.